


Two of Pentacles

by PostcardsfromTheoryland



Series: April Tarot Card Prompts [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Character Study, Exhaustion, Flash Fic, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, black paladin!Keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:22:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23457757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PostcardsfromTheoryland/pseuds/PostcardsfromTheoryland
Summary: The Two of Pentacles: Imbalance, the need to delegateKeith is struggling as both the Black Paladin and a member of the Blade of Marmora. Hunk takes matters into his own hands.
Relationships: Hunk & Keith (Voltron)
Series: April Tarot Card Prompts [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1686346
Comments: 12
Kudos: 75





	Two of Pentacles

Hunk worried.

It was sort of his thing. He worried about whether they would all get through this war unscathed. He worried about his family, back on earth, who had no idea where he was or what he was doing or if he was even alive. He worried about Shay and her people, far away on the Balmera. He worried about how Allura and Coran were holding up after fighting this war for so long. He worried about how that Galra cruiser had scratched the paint on Yellow’s left front leg during their last fight. He worried about whether the Almsa fruits he had gotten at their last shopping trip would be close enough to raspberries to make into jam.

He worried about a lot of things, ok? And sure sometimes he really didn’t need to worry about everything so much. 

But this was probably not one of those times. Because even from 50 feet away he could see how Keith was listing to the side, face pale, eyes unfocused.

Hunk did some mental calculations, thinking back to anytime within the battle Keith could have been injured, and coming up short. They’d been in their lions the whole time, and though they always got a few bumps and bruises, nothing that should have warranted Keith’s current appearance. And anyways, Hunk had hugged him after the fight, just like he hugged all of them after each battle, and Keith hadn’t flinched or squirmed away like he did when he was trying to hide an injury. If anything, he’d relaxed more than normal.

“You’ve got a very intense expression on your face there,” Pidge mentioned as she sidled up next to him, drinking something Hunk was fairly certain had alcohol in it.

“You checked all the food, right?” It had been common practice, ever since the disastrous celebratory meal on Kless when all five of the humans had gotten food poisoning, to make sure they could all handle whatever ingredients got thrown at them.

“Nothing toxic to humans, Alteans, or Galra,” Pidge confirmed. “Why?” But even as she asked, her eyes tracked over to where Hunk’s gaze was still on the loose circle Keith, Allura, and Shiro had made with the ministers of this planet; Keith had just poorly disguised a stumble into an artful lean against the table next to him. “Ah. Think the Blade might be running him too thin?”

“Pidge, did you ever do that thing you definitely shouldn’t have done where you opened up a backdoor into the Blade’s database?”

“I’m already on it.”

“What are you two nerds doing over here?” Lance asked as he and Coran came up behind them.

“Does Keith look...weird to you?”

“He always looks weird,” Lance automatically answered through a bite of the spicy kebab things. “But, actually...yeah. He looks like he’s going to fall over.”

“Well, unless he got hurt on a Blade mission, it isn’t that,” Pidge said, showing them the data on her tablet. “They’ve been giving him some time to rest at what seems like decent intervals.”

“Except he wasn’t resting, was he? That bit over there was the same day he went to Vry to deliver some rations and first aid supplies, remember?” Lance said.

“And this stretch over here,” Coran was pointing at the 15-varga break two days ago, “he was with Allura on Olkarion, helping more refugees get settled.”

Which meant, Hunk realized, the only downtime Keith had in the last four days was the time it took him to fly between the Blade’s headquarters and wherever the Castle had been stationed.

“Oh my god, when was the last time he _slept_?”

“He could have put his ship on autopilot,” Pidge reasoned.

“Except you know he didn’t,” said Lance. “He never uses the autopilot on those Galra fighters for more than a few minutes at a time.”

“Right, ok. We’ll just make sure he rests tonight. Lounge sleepover, facemasks and hot cocoa and the whole deal. Pidge, what’s the next thing on Keith’s schedule?”

“He’s...oh,” she faltered. “He’s got another Blade mission slated in six vargas, and it takes about five to get there from here.”

“Quiznack,” Coran hissed.

“Don’t suppose maybe Kolivan could let him call this one in?” Lance said.

“It’s listed as ‘high priority’ according to the notes.”

“And then right away after that he’s got a supply dropoff on Valdex-5 for the Coalition,” Coran reminded them.

“I’ll take that,” Pidge said. “I was headed that direction anyway on some intel about Matt.”

“So that clears up his schedule a bit for an actual rest, but we still need to get him through this Blade mission. Coran, can you and Lance run some interference for me? Get the Gloramirineseta ministers focused on you. Pidge, in like ten minutes go over there and tell Keith I need to see him at the Yellow Lion’s hangar.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, make something up. I’m going to take him to the Blade in Yellow; he can sleep on the way but you know he won’t agree to it if he knows what’s going on.” Pidge gave him a snarky, two-fingered salute as Lance and Coran wandered up to loudly engage the ministers in some kind of conversation about...eyelashes?

Whatever worked.

He turned and headed to the castle and then into his hangar as quickly as possible, gathering up as many pillows and blankets from one of the supply closets as he could on the way. It wouldn’t be as comfortable as an actual bed, but it was going to have to do. He’d arranged everything into a passable-looking nest and then gotten Keith’s ship into the Lion’s hold by the time Keith was walking up the ramp into the cockpit. He was really sneaky about it, but now that Hunk knew what he was looking for, Keith’s steps were just the slightest bit unsteady.

“Pidge said Yellow got damaged in the battle…?” Keith asked, looking around. “Seems fine to me, though.”

“Oh yeah, Yellow’s great,” Hunk confirmed. “You’ve got a Blade mission in a little bit, don’t you?”

Keith’s face fell, and he rubbed at his eyes a bit in a way that Hunk was definitely not going to admit was cute. “Yeah, actually I should get going really soon.”

“Great,” Hunk nodded, ushering Keith toward the pile of bedding in the corner. “Go to sleep.”

“Hunk, what are you…”

“You look like shit,” he said bluntly. “And we all looked over your schedule for the past few days and you have had like, zero sleep. That’s not healthy.”

“I...Galra can go longer without sleep than humans can,” Keith countered feebly.

“Which is the only reason you’re still upright, I’m pretty sure. Keith. You need to sleep, man. Let me take you back to the Blade so you can at least get some rest on the way.”

“I shouldn’t, I don’t want to look…” But he trailed off slumping against the wall of the cockpit. Hunk could see him shaking.

“Don’t want to look....”

“I’m short,” Keith admitted.

“You...don’t want to let me take you to the Blade because...you’re short?”

“No, I’m…” he trailed off again, rubbing a hand over his face and hunching in on himself, which made him look even smaller than normal, and...oh.

“You don’t want the Blade to think you’re weak because you’re already having to prove that you’re worthy to them since you’re only half Galra and a lot smaller than they are, right? Hate to break it to you buddy, but they’re really going to think you’re weak if you pass out on this really important mission you’ve got coming up.” It was a little brutal, he knew, but hopefully it would knock some sense into Keith. Tough love and everything. “Hey, Allura’s really strong and badass, right?” If Keith even registered how much of a non sequitur that was, he didn’t show it, humming vaguely in response. “Well, you remember how she healed the entire Balmera all by herself? And then you know what she did after that?”

“Almost flew us into an exploding star?” Keith deadpanned.

“Well, yeah, that, but also, _she rested_. Just because you’re the Black Paladin and a super cool Galra ninja assassin doesn’t mean you can just ignore sleep.”

“But I need to...Shiro is…”

That was another issue in the back of Hunk’s mind. Shiro had been acting strangely, much harsher with Keith than normal. And they’d been standing right next to each other all night and Shiro hadn’t seemed to notice a thing. When they first went up into space he had mercilessly nagged all of them, Keith included, to make sure they were sleeping and eating and relaxing a little, but now…

It was a problem for another day.

“Part of being a leader is about delegating, and you’ve got the Blade missions, and we know that. Let us take care of some of the other stuff. Speaking of, Pidge is taking your supply run to Valdex-5.”

“I can’t just-”

“She volunteered,” Hunk said. “Keith, we’re your team. Let us help.”

“You’re not going to take no for an answer, are you,” Keith groaned, but even as he said he was kicking off his shoes and then face-planting into the blankets. “Wake me up half a varga before we get there, I still need to look over the briefing.”

“You got it, buddy. Nice and gentle, Yellow,” Hunk murmured. There was a soft rumble, a not-quite purr from the Lion, and when Hunk glanced back after they left the hangar, Keith’s face was already relaxed in sleep.


End file.
